The Hypocrisy of Civilized Society as a Major Theme in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn - Research Paper Example

The Hypocrisy of “Civilized” Society One of America's favorite Mark Twain, was actually dSamuel Langhorne Clemens. He was born in 1835 in Florida, Missouri and lived a normal childhood until his father died when Samuel was just 12 years old. At that point, the famous author says he was 'forced' to leave school and strike out on his own. He worked for a newspaper for several years, honing his sharp wit and insightful observation skills. Then he fell in love with the Mississippi river boats. It is from that profession that he took his pen name, Mark Twain. It's also where he gained a lot of the experience he would need to create The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Although these were essentially children's stories, Twain had a tendency to create stories with a much deeper meaning underneath the charm and the humor. He encouraged his readers to plunge the depths of their understanding and adapt their behavior to a more accurate reflection of their inner beliefs (Railton, 2007). In The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Twain blatantly criticizes the hypocrisy of 'civilized' society as he ridicules religion, satirizes education, criticizes slavery, and exposes aristocratic characters. Twain Ridicules Religion Religion was a particular sore spot with Twain and he expresses his disdain of it through the characters of the Widow Douglas and Miss Watson. These poor ladies remain obediently devout through everything, without seeming to realize that their belief structures are almost entirely contradictory. Huck sums it up when he's out thinking in the woods, "I judged I could see that there was two Providences, and a poor chap would stand considerable show with the widow’s Providence, but if Miss Watson’s got him there warn’t no help for him any more" (23). The brand that Miss Watson has to offer seems to make no sense to Huck, who is forced to hold off on eating in order to watch her grumble over the food before every meal, "though there warn’t really anything the matter with them” (14). Not only does religion not make sense at home, but Huck's later experiences do little to increase his willingness to adopt religion. More than the contradictory natures of the Widow Douglas and Miss Watson, Huck is completely puzzled by the behavior of the Grangerfords and Shepherdsons. Even though the families sit calmly together in church, the feud begins again the moment they step foot off of church property: "The men took their guns along, so did Buck…The Shepherdsons done the same. It was pretty ornery preaching- all about brotherly love, and such-like tiresomeness;” (129), but the families don't hear any of it. Even with the church pleading with them to put aside their fight, it is the feud rather than the church that has the greatest influence on them. “Worse than the mindless, inherited pattern of the feud, however, is the fact that it serves no purpose, since the original cause of the conflict long has been forgotten.” (Wright 90). This experience has a profound effect on Huck's later decisions. When it comes time for Huck to decide whether to turn in his friend Jim as a runaway slave, Huck decides it would be better to go to hell. “I took it up, and held it in my hand. I was trembling, because I’d got to decide, forever, betwixt two things, and I knowed it. I studied a minute, sort of holding my breath, and then says to myself: ‘All right, then, I’ll go to hell’- and tore it up” (223). “Huck's justly celebrated crisis of conscience, which culminates in his resolve to free Jim, even if doing so condemns him to hell” (Smith 8) is made a bit easier by his understanding of how others observed their religion. Twain Satirizes Education It is an indication of his depth of satire that Twain uses Huck, an almost completely uneducated narrator, to point out the depth of society's corruption including its failures within the educational system. He doesn't see much use for it in any of his interactions with others. For example, Tom Sawyer reads books, but his plans and schemes always fall because they are impractical: “’Why blame it all, we’ve got to do it. Don’t I tell you it’s in the books? Do you want to go doing different from what’s in the books, and get things all muddled up’” (21). Just like in the case of religion, Huck notices that with all that book learning, Tom still seems blind to the realities. “As leader, Tom Sawyer attempts to enforce a code taken from romantic novels. Any question of morality ("Must we always kill the people?") is swept aside to uphold the adopted pattern of conduct” (Wright 89). As far as Huck can tell, education is just another form of religion, a code of conduct telling you how to behave without giving a moment's thought to practical application. On the other hand, Huck is able to spend time with Jim as they float down the river and discover in the escaped slave a vast resource of practical wisdom. Throughout the story, Jim takes up the position of a loving father figure, despite the social inequality, and he carefully guides Huck to think about his actions and their probable consequences. Even though he can't read, Jim is very knowledgeable. As Huck tries to explain the point behind King Solomon's offer to settle a dispute between two women regarding the rightful mother by cleaving the child in half, Jim gets excited. “Blame de pint! I reck’n I knows what I knows. En mine you, de real pint is down furder-it’s down deeper. It lays in the way Sollermun was raised’” (88). According to Jim, Solomon was so willing to cut the child in half because he already had more children than he knew what to do with, they weren't valuable to him anymore. In his own way, Jim was teaching Huck the value of moderation. Twain Criticizes Slavery The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is perhaps most often studied for its critique of slavery. It is clear from the story, “…the Widow Douglas's and Miss Watson's evening prayers when 'they fetched the niggers in '” (Beaver 342), that the slaves were only permitted in the main house during this one special time of the day. Otherwise, they were kept outside like the cats. Even though he is not permitted within the house without cause, Jim still manages to hear Miss Watson telling the Widow Douglas that she cannot resist selling Jim down the river. “’Well, one night I creeps to de do’, pooty late, en de do’ warn’t quite shet, en I hear ole missus tell de widder she gwyne to sell me down to Orleans...” (55). Being sold down the river was a common threat given to slaves in more northern states because it was well known, especially among the slave population, that slaves were brutally mistreated down there. “Jim runs away to avoid being sold down the river by Miss Watson” (Berret 47). However, Jim has further goals than simply avoiding being sold down the river into harsher slavery. Instead, he wants to go north to earn his freedom and eventually buy back his wife and children. Huck summarizes Jim's plans for us: “when he got to a free State he would go to saving up money…when he got enough he would buy his wife…and them they would both work to buy the two children” (110). As Huck strives to achieve his freedom from the pressures given by the good ladies back home, the concept of freedom takes on a whole new distinction. “The inversion of term like «freedom» gains added force when Jim (75) vows to buy his wife out of slavery, proposing with her in turn to then buy their children” (Lee 38). The straight style in which the information is delivered, without much of Huck's usual accented speech, only serves to highlight this higher plane of purpose as compared to Huck. Although Jim and Huck are on completely separate rungs of the social ladder, they are able to achieve a level of equality while out on the raft, enabling Jim to demonstrate his true worth. Huck remembers the moment he crossed the line between thinking of Jim as less than and considering him more of an equal: “It was fifteen minutes before I could work myself up to go and humble myself to a nigger-but I done it, and I warn’t ever sorry afterwards, neither.” (95). Speaking of Twain's readers, Berret says, “they become more and more disenchanted with civilization… and they are powerfully drawn toward the values manifested in Huck’s growing attachment to Jim, where original and direct experience belies conventional dogma, and where basic humanity and equality outweigh property and class” (41). It is through the relationship between Huck and Jim that Twain is able to show his version of a better society. Twain Exposes Aristocratic Characters Twain makes a distinction between criticizing society and criticizing individuals within that society. In criticizing civilization, as discussed above, he is gently critical of his ladies. He clearly points out their frailties, but he also illustrates their good intentions and provides them with some sympathy. Individuals who make a great fuss about their identity within this society are not treated as kindly. The king and the duke pretend to be royalty: “’…It ain’t my fault I warn’t born a duke, it ain’t your fault you warn’t born a king-so what’s the use to worry?’” (142), but they know how to use popular rumor to their advantage. "Their first appearance as European aristocracy, fake royalty in a supposed levelling frontier society, also reveals that they know, too, how to ape the profession” (Lee 41). As they perfect their persona, they deign to associate themselves through their association with two felons on a raft. “’To think I should have lived to be leading such life, and be degraded down into such company’” (139). While they pretend to be the highest order of society, their behavior continues to illustrate that they are actually among the very low. The so-called king and duke defraud the townspeople through a deliberate campaign of deceit. “So the king he blatted along, and managed to inquire about pretty much everybody and dog in town, by his name, and mentioned all sorts of little things that happened one time or another in the town” (179), giving Huck a taste of how they pull it off. "They are finally exposed, but not before they manage to fool almost a whole town” (Berret 44). Their duplicity and willingness to take advantage of the innocent and trusting members of society, those who hadn't done anyone any harm, sicken Huck until he finally determines a means of foiling their plans. This is compared to the princely behavior of Jim throughout the journey. Other leading members of society have similar delusions of grandeur but are brought up short by true representations of a leader. The Grangerfords and Shepherdsons consider themselves pillars of the community, but each is willing to kill a member of the other on sight, except during church, for a feud that can't be settled. They lean their guns against the pews, hold them prominently between their knees, or line them up along the wall during the church service in a show of force and strength against their enemies. However, their example to the community they believe they lead is one of harsh, illogical hatred with inevitable annihilation of both sides. The Phelps neighbors also use guns as a show of strength when they hunt down a runaway slave: “Fifteen farmers, and every one of them had a gun” (276). On the other side of the coin, there's Colonel Sherburn. When the town drunk screams insults at him all day, he calmly comes out and tells the man to leave him alone. When Boggs violates the time limit, “Bang! goes the first shot, and he staggers back clawing at the air ... bangs! Goes the second one, and he tumbles backwards onto the ground, heavy and solid, with his arms spread out” (159). “Sherburn kills him in fulfillment of his threat” (Wright 91) and then faces down the mob in a true show of strength, delivering a speech that teaches Huck about what strength is as compared to what it is not. While the others let the gun be their strength, Sherburn's strength comes from within. The gun is just a tool to enforce it. Conclusion Throughout The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain continuously criticizes his society by both pointing out what's wrong and providing examples of what's better. In criticizing religion, for example, he isn't criticizing religion itself, but the blind way in which people who claim to be Christians violate the rules of their belief system on a consistent basis as compared to others who are spiritual, such as Huck is becoming, but don't go to church. While writing against education, he is again not against formalized education but is in favor of reforming it to have some form of practical application and logic. His stance against slavery is particularly strong, constantly illustrating the high qualities of Jim as potentially the ideal of human society in his wisdom, grace, humility, loyalty, and love. This as compared to Huck's true father, a man who would chain him into a shack and leave him for days. Finally, Twain warns about false people, those who pretend to be something they are not and those who merely think they are something they are not. For a fun little children's book, this novel exposes a great deal of the hypocrisy of 'civilized' society. Work Cited Beaver, Harold “Run, Nigger, Run: Adventures of Huckleberry Finn as a Fugitive Slave Narrative” Journal of American Studies, Vol. 8, No. 3 (Dec 1974). Berret, Anthony J. “Huckleberry Finn and the minstrel show” American Studies, Vol. 27, No. 2 (Fall 1986), pp. 37-29. Lee, A. Robert “Getting Uncivilised: Huckleberry Finn as Moral Experience” Atlantis, Vol. 6, No. 1/2 (junio-noviembre 1984), pp. 29-43 Merriman, C.D. “Mark Twain.” The Literature Network. Jalic, 2006. Web. Railton, Stephen. Mark Twain in His Times. Virginia: University of Virginia, 2007. Web. Smith, David L. “Huck, Jim, and American Racial Discourse” Mark Twain Journal, Vol. 22, No. 2 (Fall 1984), pp. 4-12. Twain, Mark. Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. 3rd ed. Norton critical ed, 1835-1910. Print. Wright, Daniel L. “Flawed Communities and the Problem of Moral Choice in the Fiction of Mark Twain” The Southern Literary Journal, Vol. 24, No. 1 (Fall 1991), pp. 88-97 Read More